Gah... I need to stop procrastinating... I have a project due tommorow and i'm ony partially done with it... I just gotta do something that i can't do at the moment so i'm stuck doing absolutely NOTHING! Oh, wait, i'm updating this story here... That's something! And... and then i read the 5th Zatch Bell manga and started on .hack/AI Buster 2, and... and...!

Brago: (rolls eyes) No, really. You're just sitting there on your a--

Shush! Let me enjoytalking to myself as i type on the keyboard for all to see my random conversations!

Brago: Whatever... Can i just go back to the story now?

I dunno... Can you?

Brago: (vein)(walks away)

Heehee! n.n Oh, and by the way, there will be about 4 chapters left in this entire story. (cries a river) It's almost over...

Disclaimer: I down own Konjiki no Gash Bell, but i do own Kalu! MY OC! MY MUSE! BUWAHAHAHAHA!

Kalu: o.O Mamma... Daddy... She's scaring me...

Brago: Haven't you given her enough torture for one lifetime? -.-

... Shush...


A Gift from the Dark

Chapter 33

Permanent Tears

Deep in the King's castle, two worrisome parents stood at the door to an almost empty section. The floor was a hard wood that shimmered slightly as it reflected the light bouncing into the room through the open window. On one side of a wall was a bed and on it laid a limp, unconscious figure.

"What was it exactly that was hurting her?" asked a woman, Sherry, as she gazed upon her unmoving child. Her face was reddened from being so distressed and crying. She sniffed as she wiped away another tear that trickled down her cheek. It had already turned about five o'clock in the afternoon, nine hours since the entire event of the day had started.

As the human's question escaped her lips, the Demon King walked into the room. The childlike demon looked as if he had been rather stressed about something for quite a while, which in fact was exactly what had been happening. For hours he had been helping Brago and Sherry's daughter, trying to make sure she didn't slip away... Now the only thing they could do was wait and see when, or if, she would wake up.

"It was that personality Zophise gave her," responded the King as he walked into the room, looking around at both of the parents. "At first it didn't do any harm to her, all it did was make her more aggressive."

"Then what?" inquired Brago, looking down upon the smaller demon before him.

Zatch sighed and warily stared at the ground. "One of the other demons that helped me out with curing her told me that the first added personality was altered by Zophise. Afterwards, it began to slowly kill her and eat away at her strength to the point where she couldn't move nor speak anymore." Glancing up, the blonde observed the expressions on the two's faces, they were both fairly upset.

Turning her head, Sherry stared sadly upon Kalu with her azure eyes and began to walk toward to the little girl. She stroked the child's cheek with her hand and sighed heavily. Kalu was so weak at the present moment... What was she to do?

"And the persona," started Sherry without tearing her eyes away from her child, "Is... Is it still there?"

Biting his lip, the King hesitantly nodded. "Y-yes..."

"Can't you take it away from her?" asked Sherry, finally turning away to look at the Demon King. "It can be removed, right?" Sherry stared. "R-right?"

"I... I'm sorry," said Zatch Bell, staring at the ground. "But... it can't be removed. Zophise put a spell on her that made it everlasting. Take it away and Kalu will die for sure. It's become apart of who she is now."

"Then what the hell are we supposed to do?" asked Brago angrily as he glared down at the miniature king. "She's our daughter, dammit, isn't there anything?" He stooped down and furiously grabbed the collar of Zatch's shirt with his hands. "Anything?"

Zatch looked away from the angry parent with saddened eyes but didn't say a word. Sherry watched as her husband growled a bit and then thrust the blonde away from him. She stood up and walked over to the dark demon, placed her hands on his shoulders, and stared down at the ruler.

"Zatch," she began, "Is there anything else you would like to say about Kalu? We would really like to know."

For a moment, he paused, unsure of what he should say, but after a moment the king nodded his head. "...She can't go back to the human world."

"What!" Sherry stared, her mouth agape. "W-what do you mean by that? Explain yourself!"

Putting on another saddened expression, Zatch glanced down to the ground and spoke quietly. "In order to save her a special spell had to be placed on Kalu to stop her other personality from killing herself. However, the spell only works in the demon world, so if you were to ever take her back she would most likely die."

"...But..." The woman stared, her gaze averting to her husband's for a quick second before she finally turned her attention back to the king. "Well if... Let's say if we did take her back, how long do you think she would survive?"

"From what I was told, no more than an hour," said Zatch solemnly. He shot a glimpse over to the unmoving child before he turned back and headed out the door. "I'm sorry... it's all my fault this happened, I didn't protect the portal well enough. I hope you can forgive me..."

And with that, he quietly strode out of the room, leaving the two parents with their child. Sherry stared long and hard afterwards, contemplating every single thing Zatch had said.

Sighing, she turned to look at Brago who stared at her back. They said nothing but silently embraced another once more, worrying over their daughter.

Brago held onto the woman tightly as he glanced across the room over Sherry's shoulder where Kalu lay. There had not been too many times where he was particularly very worried, but there were still a few occasions.

One of the situations was when the Battle for King was still taking place, not too long before their first kiss. Sherry would constantly worry over her friend Koko's well being after the fight with Zophise took place. From all the stress she was feeling, Brago couldn't help but feel stressed as well; he had been concerned for her, wondering if she was alright.

Another time had been before the final battle with Zatch, he wondered what would happen in the end: Would he end up claiming the throne and take Sherry with him, or would he lose and have to leave her behind? Even though he couldn't become the king, he was at least able to stay with Sherry, he was relieved about that.

Then there was when Sherry was pregnant with Kalu... The woman had become very ill quite often during her pregnancy; Brago merely assumed that it was because she wasn't exactly fit to carry a crossbreed between a human and demon. He was worried that their own child could possibly kill her or be killed before she was even born. And then when she finally was, there was always the natural concern of his wife and child's well being...

This situation was defiantly one of the worst he had to experience...

"Brago...?"

The woman's voice snapped the demon out of his trip down memory lane and he turned to look down at her with his ruby orbs. "What?"

"You should really get that wound cleaned up," she stated simply, referring to the gash around the side of his waist. When he and Sherry arrived at the King's castle he never bothered to clean the wound, he had been too distracted with other important activities. "It doesn't look too good... You're still bleeding."

"I'll be fine. It's just a small wound."

"Brago, that is not a small wound," Sherry said, giving him a firm look. "That is a rather large cut that needs to be taken care of. Come on, I know that there must be some bandages somewhere around here..."

So with those words spoken the woman grabbed Brago by the arm and led him to a small cabinet that was in the room. Luckily this was the infirmary of the castle, they were sure to find some things in storage for supplies required for cleaning and curing injuries. A decent amount of bandages were soon found, Sherry began to gather all she assumed she would need out of the cabinet.

When Brago threw off his shirt to have his injury inspected, his wife gasped as she took a good look at the damage. "That's worse than what I thought," she said quietly, now taking the white material in her hand, setting it to the side, glancing at the wound. The skin around the cut was completely reddened; a little blood was still trickling down his side. "I can't use this quite yet, I need a wet cloth," said Sherry, turning away.

"It's not that bad, Sherry," said Brago as he watched the woman get up and continue to search for the desired materials. "It'll heal, trust me. I've had worse happen."

"Yes, but every time I saw something really bad I already had an emergency kit with me, or at least Jii did," said Sherry, still searching through the different cabinets, opening and closing the variety of cupboards. "So that was an advantage."

The demon rolled his eyes and glanced back to his daughter. If she had been awake she would have been giggling and having fun, laughing at her parents' minor bickering. She would be there, conscious, back to her old self once more...

"Brago," said Sherry, now walking over to her husband. He nodded his head and sighed, then sat down on a bench in the room that was off in the corner; his wife sat down next to him. She had found a small door to the side that led to where a faucet was and where she could pour fresh water on a cloth as she held it under the running water. Beginning to clean up the wound to the demon's side, she continued the conversation once more. "So...What are we going to do now that Kalu can't leave this world?"

Brago sat there for a moment, pondering about his response. The cool, wet rag felt good against his exposed skin and he closed his eyes as he slowly let himself begin to relax, relieving a little more stress from the day. "I suppose... we'll just have to stay here for now as well."

Sherry didn't respond to his comment right away; instead, she merely continued to press the wet rag against the injury. She finally cleaned up enough blood and began to wrap the bandages around his side.

"Hmm... I suppose so..." said the woman quietly. "I remember Kalu once saying she didn't like coming here very much. The only reason why she came was because she was forced to and that she wanted to see Zatch..."

"Hn."

"Has she told you this?"

"Yes."

"Ah."

They continued on in silence and finally the woman finished up her job right after tying a small knot with the bandage, securing it so it wouldn't fall off or loosen. Brago looked at her as she sat up strait and sighed. He brushed a clawed hand against her soft cheek silently, staring into her azure eyes and her into his crimson ones

For a moment they just sat like this, silently, until Brago stood up and said, "I have to go out for a while," he spoke, glancing at his daughter quickly before returning his gaze to Sherry.

"Where are you going?"

"Hn, just need to complete some unfinished business."

Sherry nodded her head, indicating that she understood. "I see..."

Brago turned and looked down at his wife. "I'll be back as soon as I can... If Kalu wakes up just tell her I went out somewhere quickly. Nodding her head, Sherry stated that she understood once more and Brago let a small smile cross his lips. He bent down and cupped the woman's chin, capturing her lips with his own; she immediately returned the kiss and rested her hands on his bare shoulders, enjoying every second.

"This is for the both of us," he whispered softly between a short breath and Sherry nodded.

After a moment he broke the embrace and stared down fondly upon the woman before him. She smiled back a little and let a tear trickle down from her eye. "I love you, Brago..."

While nodding his head, Brago stood up, grabbed his fur cloak and threw it back on around his shoulders before walking out the door. "I'll be right back..."

-o-o-o-o-o-

Night had befallen the demon world and in the middle of the forest there was silence. The birds that had flown away from the earlier fight had slowly returned, though not as many were there as before. However, they would make their way back-- they always did whenever two demons fought another, the all too familiar fighting and flying away from it experience had almost become like a routine, although the fights didn't always happen all the time.

Lying on the ground was a badly beaten up figure. He had been there, unmoving, silent for hours it seemed. It was as though he had been entirely forgotten. Or had he...?

To the right, another shadowed figure began to walk over to where the beaten up demon lay. The outline of the being stared in disdain as he gritted his teeth and fists, glaring down upon the wounded figure.

An eye slowly turned to the side and a low chuckle was then emitted: A horrid, low, loathsome laugh that represented pure malevolence...

"Come to finish the job, eh, Brago?" Zophise laughed halfheartedly as he painfully shook his head. "Should have known..."

"Shut it, you bastard," hissed the dark demon irritably as he clenched his fists even tighter. Brago glared and his crimson orbs vanished, leaving only white within his clouded eyes. "I've come here for two reasons."

"Oh, so now it's two reasons, hm?"

In a spiteful move, Brago roughly kicked the other in the side and he rolled over a few times before stopping once more, this time on his side, facing the demon. Zophise looked up with his yellowish red eyes and smirked.

"Whether I die or not, your daughter will still remain in that condition," he said coolly. "She'll forever have that personality, even if she lives. It's apart of her now, you can't get rid of it. That is, unless you wish to get rid of your precious, wonderful daughter... Heh, heh, heh..." Zophise continued to snicker mirthlessly and Brago grinded his teeth together.

Quickly, his foot came in collision with Zophise's side yet again and the vile creature rolled onto his stomach. The dark demon bent down and grabbed him by the throat before he rammed him against a nearby tree, the grin on the other's lips broadened.

"Tell me how to remove it," hissed Brago.

"I told you, there's no possible way to get rid of it. Now that I've given your daughter this persona, it can't be erased. Even I can't erase it from her being." Zophise smiled but then gasped as the grip around his throat tightened. He didn't bother to try and remove Brago's hands away from him; he was too weak to move.

"Jaa, so tell me, you liar," said Brago after a moment, his eyes flashing. "About three months ago Kalu was almost kidnapped. I know now that you were the one who sent that demon, and you were also the one who stole a book so that he could use his powers in the human world. Why couldn't you just come and show your damn face in the human world so I could take care of you then and there?"

The smirk remained on Zophise's face but he said nothing, he merely grinned in arrogance at the other's obvious irritation. Brago scoffed and his grip around the other's neck increased, causing him to squirm ever so slightly from the pain.

"Just as I thought," snarled Brago as he violently threw the other demon onto the ground. The mind-controlling demon wheezed as his back came in contact with the hard surface of the earthy floor. "You coward..."

Zophise said nothing. The smug look that had previously been on his face soon vanished entirely, and, hearing the tone in Brago's voice, a look of fear swept over his features. "N-no... Don't do anything else..." he whispered painfully, quickly shutting his eyes together tightly, not wanting to face the other's wrath any further.

Emotionlessly, Brago raised his right arm, eyes boring down into the cowering demon before him on the ground. "It's time you left this world."

"Do you think that killing me will really solve your problems?" asked Zophise tiredly as he stared up into the blank eyes of the dark demon. "Do you really think that Kalu will return back to normal after my death?"

Without saying a word, a dark aura soon engulfed Brago's hand and a sudden surge of energy began to pound against the beaten demon's body. Shortly after, Brago turned away without saying a word after the collapse of the other demon, whom laid there lifelessly on the ground.

Zophise had been claimed by death, but Brago was still unsure if Kalu really would get better again after this ordeal. He didn't look back after he walked away from the scene, the demon merely headed back to the castle, to his family.

"I don't know if she'll be entirely healed," Brago murmured to himself quietly as he strode across the forest. "But she won't die, that I know."